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Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Inadequate Thoughts of Chairman Cameron on Proportional Representation

Dave wants to conserve the archaic First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system, which deliver majority Governments on the basis of a minority of votes cast.

Here are his arguments:

Conservative government will not consider introducing proportional representation (PR)... The principle underlying all the political reforms a Conservative government would make is the progressive principle of redistributing power and control from the powerful to the powerless. PR would actually move us in the opposite direction, which is why I'm so surprised it's still on the wish-list of progressive reformers. Proportional representation takes power away from the man and woman in the street and hands it to the political elites. Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals. How is that going to deliver transparency and trust?

So he asserts that PR would take power away from the people. He ignores the fact that FPTP takes the votes of a minority of voters and transforms it into what is effectively an elected dictatorship. In FPTP Voters vote, and the wishes of the voters (often a majority) who do not vote for the victorious MP are discarded, disappearing into the ether. Just how empowering is that, Dave?

“Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals”

This is pretty vague, but he seems to be referring to the fact that under PR, coalition governments have to be formed between two or more parties. Is that so much of a problem, that differing political views and philosophies, based on the wishes of a majority of the people, have to be merged? Is it really so bad that political debate, based ultimately on the merits of the case, has to take place in the Cabinet? We do not think so. The people want parties to agree together, are fed up with the Punch and Judy adversarial pantomime that we see. Real politics is the are of finding what is best for the majority, not just dictating what is best for the particular group that Government speaks for.

Then he goes on to emphasise the constituency link. I think that the constituency link with an MP is important and that the first-past-the-post system is best placed to deliver a government with a clear agenda that is closest to what the country has voted for.

This demonstrates that Dave is ignorant (woefully ignorant even) of the fact that some forms of PR (AV and AV+, and AMS), retain the constituency link.